Split Seconds
by grandlarseny
Summary: Drabbles and shorts from the series 'Naruto'. Primarily SasuSaku.
1. short: SasuSaku: In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight

Sasuke envied Naruto for a lot of things, but most of all for the way he could see people.

For instance, when Sasuke encountered Gaara of the Sand, he saw 'enemy'.

When Naruto fought Gaara, he saw 'loneliness, sorrow, isolation, depression, despair, wanting, needing, betrayal, reaching, begging, hurting, strength, hope, hope, hope'.

It's because of this quality that Sasuke thinks Naruto can love Sakura more perfectly than he ever could, so he doesn't stop his teammate's irritating if admirably relentless romantic pursuit. Sasuke also acknowledges that Naruto will make it easier to leave her behind.

In Sasuke's world, people were flat and colorless. He liked it that way, because complexity derived emotion, and emotion was something he could ill afford. Sasuke doesn't think he even knows _how_ to truly care for another.

Still, he's not completely immune to the pitfalls of a human heart. Anyone could understand it was hard to see in black and white when her eyes were so green and her hair so pink.

There are flashes when he catches a glimpse of the Sakura Naruto worships with stunning clarity. (Sasuke's eyesight is both a curse and an honored birthright.) Instances where time stills and her hair is flying as the death blow nears- his stomach never dropped to his knees so fast as when he thought she'd be gone in the next instant.

Another moment, where she is strong, sweaty and beat up. He notices her musculature, how tense it is and how fierce her eyes are before the sand knocks her aside. But for the second she stood in front of him he never felt safer.

It's in the inches she closes with her arms when all he wants to do is break them. Then she's warm against his back, weeping and begging him to stop. He never wanted that for her, so he finds strength he never knew he had in himself to force the ugliness back down.

Never, never, never. With nothing to offer, and so much to lose, that's all his future with Team 7 could amount to- strings of broken promises and disappointments.

When he leaves, he wishes he never saw the world through Naruto's eyes, because it's spoiled him for the coldness ahead. When he leaves, he wishes he had never looked at Sakura when his gaze was warmer, because it's spoiled him for the loneliness he would've mistaken as tranquility before her.

He especially wishes he never noticed any of this when he sees her again years later, when all the moments, and inches, and sweetness have knitted together seamlessly into a woman he doesn't want to know but recognizes all too well.

He feels decidedly grotesque next to her, twisted and unnatural. She sees his falter in confidence and capitalizes on it. Hardly believing it, he falls to her attack. He never hits the ground, because she caught him, and now she's kneeling and holding him so tight his ribs creak. She's stronger, much stronger, and yet, Sasuke never remembered her body being so small compared to his.

She's crying all over his shirt.

He should be horrified that a ninja who couldn't even manage to stem the flow of tears beat _him_.

He should be thinking _'HOW'_!

Instead, he's realizing he doesn't need a softer gaze or even his sharingan to see what it was Naruto always knew- now it is in plain sight.


	2. drabble: SasuSaku: Trainwreck of Thought

Train-wreck of Thought

_A shinobi respects his body and his mind._

_A shinobi should be unburdened by mundane trivialities._

_A shinobi should never show emotion. _

"Oi, Sasuke! How're ya!"

"Hn. Naruto. Fine."

_A shinobi looks after his teammates._

_A shinobi would sacrifice everything for the good of his mission._

_A shinobi is not prone to distrac-_

A low wolf whistle.

"Sakura!" Naruto grinned, "New get-up!"

Sasuke cracked his eye open.

"It was my 16th birthday present. I was outgrowing my old dress."

_A shinobi …is not…prone…_

She smoothed her hair back, a self-conscious smile fastened on her lips. "You think it looks okay?"

Naruto pretended to be shocked. "OKAY! It's more than okay! It's downright sexy!"

_A…shinobi…prone…_

"Sasuke, are you okay?"

_Prone…toooooo…_

_Dammit._


	3. drabble: SasuSaku: Clean Slate

Clean Slate

At first, she is just glad he is alive. That is before she finds out. Blank hospital walls and clean linen sheets are all she knows for days. The head wound keeps him unconscious, peaceful and still.

"Who are you?" He asks when she opens the door.

Long term memory loss. "My name is Sakura. I am...one of your close friends."

"I'm sorry, I can't seem to remember…" And then Sasuke smiles like he was meant to, before he knew of murder and betrayal.

It was beautiful, so beautiful, and Sakura cries for what he's lost and what he's gained.


	4. drabble: SasuSaku: Empty

Empty

How long had she endured those one sided hugs?

Sasuke knew the answer was as long as they had been acquainted. How empty it must have been, her arms grasping his body, never to feel his own return the welcome touch. Always reaching, never sure if it she was going to be slapped away.

He knew what that emptiness felt like, because he was experiencing it now. He crushed her to his chest, but she remained limp in the circle of his arms, no acknowledgement, no return embrace. The blood was everywhere. It left her empty.


	5. drabble: SasuSaku: Teaching Me How

Teaching Me How

He would not move. Stationary, silent, motionless.

He would be as steadfast as she was when she jumped in front of him. As unwavering as she was even after the kunai nestled hungry fangs in her flesh. As immobile as she was when he held her, screaming at her that she was _"so stupid! How could you be so stupid? God damn it, Sakura!"_.

As still and tranquil as she was now. As she had been for so long.

"Sasuke?" Velvety green eyes fluttered open for the first time in weeks.

No. He would never move from her side again.


	6. drabble: GaaSaku: The Value of Love

The Value of Love

Sometimes she cried for all the beautiful things she had known, precious memories like cursed treasure, so tempting...

She turns glittering moments over in her mind, devastating because she can only hold on to them. She always knew money didn't buy happiness, but no one said devotion didn't either.

She now knows the pitfalls of greed, and how it's worse to lust for love than gold. Time doesn't heal that wound. His tattoo suggests he understood that, somehow.

"Do you ever hate your happy memories?"

He never answered her before tonight.

"I don't have any of those."


	7. short: SasuSaku: Worthy

Worthy

His arrival in Konoha was received with mixed emotions. Friends he didn't know he had welcomed him back. Fellow shinobi's eyed him warily. 'And with good reason.' He thought, averting eyes as black as the sins he'd committed.

"Oi! Sakura!" Naruto shouted, loud as he'd always been, arms waving in an ostentatious display of energy. "He's back!"

Sasuke followed Naruto's gaze, barely registering the blur of reds and pinks until it slammed into his body. Sakura's arms restricted his breathing, and though glad of the embrace, he found suffocation a very likely outcome of the crushing hug.

"Sakura." He winced, and she immediately released him, throwing her arms around Naruto.

"Thank you." He thought he heard her murmur into Naruto's jacket. The grin on that idiot's face gentled as he hugged her back, replying simply with "Hey, it's just my ninja way."

They parted, facing Sasuke, smiling a welcome that didn't need to be spoken. He was grateful, so grateful. And yet…

Days later, he and Sakura had a moment of respite from the red tape his return had required, an idle moment on the bridge they had once waited on every morning. It was hard, keeping up the casual conversation with such an apparent reminder of all they had lost, so Sasuke found himself voicing the question he'd never intended to ask.

"Why did you welcome me back?" And in-between those lines, so obviously, _'why don't you hate me?'_.

She looked startled, and for a moment he thought he had offended her. After all, it could only be with a measure of insolence that a person could doubt the gift she had given him.

But then her mouth sweetened into a smile, warm and intimate, and because of the troubled past they now had, Sasuke didn't resent it anymore when his heart predictably skipped a beat.

Her hands lifted to clasp his, and her eyes crinkled with some tender emotion.

"What is love, Sasuke, without forgiveness?"

He would work to earn this, he promised, because he knew something good had finally happened for him, and for once his eyes were open to it. And he didn't deserve it, at least not now, he knew, but Sasuke had never been one to let an opportunity slip by simply because he wasn't worthy of it, so he bent down and kissed her.


	8. short: SasuSaku: Power Struggle

Power Struggle

It all began with sparring.

They had begun the daily routine shortly after his rehabilitation, and two years later, the tradition still did not waver. First Naruto and him, in daring displays of power and agility, while Kakashi and Sakura practiced in their own way- their sparring was graceful, complimentary, pre-meditated. Then the switch up. Naruto and Kakashi would clash, raw aggression deflected by calm minimalism. It was amusing to watch to say the least. But when Sasuke and Sakura sparred...well, it was always about dominance. In the beginning, he took and took, while she would constantly give, yielding to and dodging his offense. In time, she grew more confidant, daring to claim ground and hold it, to strike out.

In the end though, he always won.

Today, however, Naruto and Kakashi both begged off final rounds, claiming a meeting with the Hokage. Sasuke sighed, slightly irritated he would only have Sakura as a challenge.

The girl bristled at his disinterest. "Y'know, you shouldn't act so bored, Sasuke. Today could be the day I beat you."

His smirk only served to goad her more. Sasuke didn't know she had been holding back, love making her sacrifice pride and bragging rights to the boy she just couldn't seem to want to shame. Sasuke also didn't know that Sakura was fast becoming sick of it. He didn't know that she wouldn't be able to explain why today of all days it finally got under her skin. If he had been aware, maybe he would hazard a guess- because she saved his ass on their last mission not even three days ago? Or maybe it was the way he tilted his chin when he turned that smirk on her, arrogant and superior to the chiseled bone? Maybe playing underdog to him had finally irked her, finally violated her basic nature enough to make her want to take her stand.

But Sasuke didn't know these things.

What he did know- less than five minutes later, he was unexpectedly flat on his back while she straddled him, kunai pressed to his throat.

"Impossible." He whispered.

She returned his smirk back to him as she applied the slightest pressure to the steel at his throat. She lowered her head, her mouth distractingly close, full lips emphasizing every word.

"Possible and probable."

He was ridiculously turned on. His body was hyper-sensitive to her rasping breath, the predatory look that only lurked in her eyes when she thought he wasn't looking. Her legs clamped on his waist, her one free hand loosely pinning his hands above his head, at such an angle that should she have chosen to exert force, he knew he would've been helpless to her grip. Hip to hip, thigh to thigh, and Sasuke couldn't find a single nerve in his body that wasn't screaming its' awareness of it to him.

He could push her off him now, before she noticed how excited he had become at the thoughts of her on top of him.

But he didn't.

Sakura arched an eyebrow. "Interesting."

He closed the small distance between their lips eagerly, deciding that another round of sparring could wait.

After all, either way you looked at it, she had won today.

And surprisingly enough, he didn't mind.


	9. short: implied SasuSaku: Flower Child

Flower Child

Hanako is the youngest in a family of six boys. She hates her name, because it means 'flower child'. It is because she is the daughter of a flower that she is the only Uchiha to have eyes green in color.

Hanako knows this is a curse when her Sharingan never develops. When her brother intercepts the ninjutsu attack that was meant for her, and pays with his life, she knows she is just a burden to the clan her father dreamed of reviving.

Nothing she does can bring her brother back, but maybe if she had been just a little stronger...

Father catches her healing a bird with a broken wing. He is shocked when it flies away at his steady approach. Hanako hunches her shoulders, shamed to be caught doing such a sentimental act as healing an animal. Father would have wanted her to be strong, unshakeable. He would be disgusted if he knew she hated pain, couldn't stand the thought of death ever since she lost her sibling. She was always messing up, always...

Uchiha Sasuke had told each of his sons, upon the development of the Sharingan, "You are my child."

His daughter is a foreign entity to him. Feminine, kind-hearted, black haired and petite, she is average at best, and with eyes the color of forest moss he _knows_ he will never be able to say those words to her.

Sasuke also _knows_ there is no hope for a bird with a broken wing. To do such a complicated healing process on such a foreign body, with success...

Yes, there was no hope for a bird with a broken wing, as sure as there had been no hope for a traitorous orphan with a broken heart.

She begins to cry, and though Sasuke balks at her tears, he finally knows what to say...

Bending down, one hand on hers, he shows her his best smile.

"You are your mothers' daughter."

Her head sinks down, knowing she'd never be enough to him, always the daughter of the flower, never of the flame.

"...and mine as well."


	10. short: GaaSaku?: Stay

Stay

He had needed her, even through his cruelty and apathy. Sakura had understood that, and willingly followed where he led.

_They all said she was the one who chased him, but the night she met him on that road, it had been he who came to her. (She was weaker then, and knew it would've been child's play for him to slip by undetected, but he just walked by, unafraid and untouchable.) _

Even as he left, she still couldn't do anything for him.

Who is hiding?

_She turned her face down when she started crying-_

Who is seeking?

_and woke remembering the scrape of his shoes against the stone. _

And now it's three years later. 

It's her, she's still ducking under tables and crouching in ditches, concealing bruises no make-up or healing jutsus can dispel. (She knows- she's able to use both masterfully.)

Gaara is under her hands, every line in her palm a lesson from the greatest medic nin of her generation, but he's not breathing. She wants to brush the tears from her eyes, but she can't, her fingers are too desperate to stop pumping chakra into Gaara.

"Victim of circumstances." Gai mutters, but all Sakura hears is-

VICTIM.

VICTIM.

VICTIM.

That's all anyone she ever loved was, utterly vulnerable to the flick of fate's wrist. Even her. She detests the helplessness, the weeping she did, and how her last glimpse of him was of his back.

BREATHE. 

She needs Gaara to live because the other could be dead, needs him to open his eyes because _his_ could've looked like that if he had tried, needs him to breathe, NEEDS HIM TO.

BREATHE GODDAMMIT.

Sasuke is drowning her, but as Gaara's eyes shoot open with gasping inhalations, she's finally surfacing.

Even as he clutches her hand, she feels a freedom, an absolution from inadequacy.

This one she kept at her side.

---


	11. short: SasuSaku: Love Story

Love Story

When Sakura was a silly girl still bent on a white picket fence and tons of children, she mused adoringly that she would be the light to Sasuke's dark. Theirs would be a romance of total opposites finding completion in one another. Back then it had seemed thrilling and even exciting that she could be healer to all his secret hurts, salvation in the form of an awkward girl who never understood self-preservation came before love.

That was before she understood darkness was deforming, and ugly, twisting its' horrid little claws into the heart's most tender places. Orochimaru was the one who taught her there was nothing romantic or beautiful about needing to be saved. And Sasuke had been the one to show her there weren't many people who wanted to be anyway.

Sakura grew older. She knew enough of herself now to understand she would never be the ethereal redeemer she had always dreamed for herself. She was quick to anger, prideful, competitive, hardy. Light seemed frail to her now, too easily dominated by shade and night. She was much stronger than that, determined to keep going long after hope flamed red and orange and sank beneath the hills.

Sasuke fulfilled his end of the bargain, however. He became the little bit of shadow she found in herself. Uncertainty took on his voice, and self-contempt the smirk of his lips. Each failure brought the flash of his back to her mind- always fresh, even after days turned into months turned into years. Her goal was never far from her mind- be strong, strong enough to bring him back.

Sasuke returned. Not of his own volition, but through what Sakura had termed "really _really_ tough love". Kakashi said that was trivializing the struggle they had gone through, but to Sakura it was the perfect phrase. That's all Team 7 had ever known, the way her teacher had taught them- you may become annoyed with your teammates, yell at them for stupidity or lateness, even come close to actually killing them- but you love them. And after you're done beating the shit out of them (and the sense back in), you throw them over your shoulder and drag their sorry asses back home because three years is just too long to let someone be a complete jerk. Sasuke's lips had thinned when she explained, and Kakashi shook his head, but Naruto caught her eye and grinned widely.

Recuperation was long and frustrating. Sasuke was not trusted. With Itachi dead, there wasn't much reason to run, but the few who knew of the last Uchiha's defection kept their eyes on him too long and too frequently. Sasuke himself was contemptuous of his old friends. The days had been long and hot in the Sound, his fair skin baking until it was leathery and hardened against anything that might tempt him to feel- be it good or bad.

Sakura persevered. Tsunade had taught her that good medic nin's need to know when to hold on and when to let go, but Sakura had always been bad at doing the latter. Too much heart, her teacher had muttered, but in Sasuke's case, the pink-haired girl thought that may be just what was needed.

Sasuke was released from the hospital, and then from confinement. Sakura turned sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. He smiled on her nineteenth birthday. That was the best present she could've asked for. Four years had passed, but it still felt like she was still growing used to Sasuke- constantly filing away old behaviors that had changed and making note of new ones.

He began slowing down so he could walk beside her. If Naruto wasn't with them, which wasn't often to Sakura's dual delight and disappointment, he would sometimes reach out to touch her fingertips, or fit his rough hand in the small of her back. Sakura likened the escalating shows of affection to melting. Those moments made her cheeks warm and old thoughts of belonging to him, of saving him resurface- but she clamped them down with a vengeance. They were free, completely free of any destiny or obligation, and he chose to be at her side- wasn't that worth more than any dreams she had of fated love?

He kissed her finally as he was helping her home from one of their rougher missions. Naruto and Kakashi were in the process of catching up, and she and Sasuke were alone, trudging through unfamiliar terrain. One second she was grinning about dodging a potentially lethal blow, the next he had pressed his mouth to hers awkwardly. She'd be lying if she said it was perfect, but at the same time, it was more than she ever expected. He pushed her away without warning.

"I'm not who you think I am." He said abruptly, visibly the most shaken she had seen him since he came back.

"And who do I think you are?" Sakura asked, unblinking. She wanted to reassure him, but something had instinctively held her back. Her mind worked at a crazy pace, trying to judge what she had done to set him off and whether this was a normal outburst or one of his episodes where he forgot he was no longer in Sound, owned by Orochimaru and the curse seal.

"Faithful. Trustworthy." He shoveled hands through his black hair, agitation clearly writ in the clenching of his muscles and the lines under his eyes. His gaze was focused though. He wasn't hallucinating. "I've done terrible things." He blurted out.

"I know." Sakura took a step forward, responding to the need in his voice.

"I've fought with other shinobi- been with other women." His tone dropped as his stare hardened, as if he was waiting for her condemnation.

"I know that, too." Sakura replied. She hadn't, not for sure, but the possibility had not escaped her brilliant mind. The truth stung, she was surprised to realize, but with another shock she realized that love without pain was hardly worth it anyway.

"Don't you get it!" He yelled, grabbed her by the shoulders. "I'm not your perfect little do-no-wrong Sasuke-kun! I'm not a father, I'm not a husband- I'm barely even _human_. I can't give you what you want!"

At this Sakura smiled, and the shock on Sasuke's face was easy to read. "No. Not by yourself. But you, and Kakashi, and Naruto together have already given me all I ever needed." She brushed her lips against his, and he responded harshly, but then again, Sasuke was known to be abrasive. She was glad he could kiss her honestly.

"Sasuke. As much as I support perversion of all sorts, I'm going to have to ask you to remove your hands from Sakura's rear end. It's freaking me out." Kakashi gave a shudder, as if saying the words were distasteful. He and Naruto were strolling casually towards them, and the two entangled ninja were chagrined to realize they hadn't even detected their presence. The raw mood immediately dissipated, smoothing into something much more safe and familiar.

"You're so lucky I have a girlfriend now, you bastard, or your ass would be kicked to Wave Country and back before I was done with you." Naruto growled, a little miffed someone had finally got the girl and it hadn't been him.

Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets and aimed for nonchalance. "You could _try_ anyway."

Normally Sakura would've chastised (and by chastised, she meant beat within an inch of his life) Naruto for spying on her private time with Sasuke, but the scene was just too poignant for her to want to break up.

Sakura and Sasuke were supposed to be a tale of opposites attracting and complimenting, but somehow Naruto and Kakashi had gotten thrown in and mixed around and it just didn't properly balance anymore. Then Sasuke had messed up while she had faltered, and they had to fight and bleed, forgive and cry. Really, Sakura thought, it wasn't much of a romance.

It was more a love story.


	12. short: No Pairing: Kindred

Kindred

It was Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, but everyone felt it was only Sasuke that Kakashi saw.

It had been expected on Sakura's part, and accepted on Naruto's. Sasuke was the village's pride, the sole remnant of Uchiha, golden boy to Konoha while Naruto was village idiot, and Sakura, sadly enough, was nothing at that point but a pretty face.

When Sasuke had been younger, and more arrogant, he had assumed it was because he had been the only member of Team 7 to show any promise. Kakashi had been right, no, _obligated_, to single him out.

Sasuke of seventeen knows better. In the shock of his life it had been Sakura to beat him, and Naruto who was able to beat her. It was a delicate balance, he had learned, one he had disrupted by leaving. So he turned around and came back, to mixed feelings from everyone who had once loved him.

Secretly, Sasuke feared seeing his old teacher again, the one who chose _him_, who trained _him_, to the exclusion of his other students. He knew the betrayal would be easy to read in those normally apathetic features.

Kakashi smiled when he saw Sasuke. Sasuke didn't pretend to understand why.

They sat together, one day not long after his return, watching Sakura beat up on Naruto, and Naruto shrieking and enjoying it at once. Any attention from Sakura was always welcome attention to the blonde ninja. Sasuke watched them, happy with each other, and felt a stirring of jealousy. If things had been different, he might be down there too, teasing with them...

"My clan's name is cursed. All who bear it suffer." Sasuke was surprised he had said it.

"Oh really?" Kakashi's offhand comment pricked Sasuke's sense of tragedy, prompting him to reply harshly.

He looked pointedly at the forehead protector covering his instructors' left eye.

Beneath it laid the red eye with abilities only members of the Uchiha blood should be able to possess. It didn't take a genius to guess the scenario that had enabled Kakashi to come by such an asset.

"You should know better than most." Sasuke sneered.

Kakashi had smiled at that. "He was my teammate. He died on my first mission as a jounin leader. This eye was his advancement present to me."

Inwardly, Sasuke shuddered at the barbaric gift, and the fact that his teacher willingly accepted such a morbid legacy. He was familiar with regretful circumstances though, and on some level he understood and accepted that piece of the copy ninja's history.

"We never got along. He was always a warmer person than I was. Even now, I can only weep out of his eye." Kakashi said. He was quiet for some time before adding, "I don't consider that a curse, though."

Sasuke knew about debts, and what they can do to a person. He even knew how loss and expectation went hand in hand. How a village could put the weight of a clan on a survivor. How a teacher could single one boy out, wishing he was another. Even how a man could see himself reflected so painfully in a child.

Though Sasuke couldn't say for certain, he wouldn't have been surprised if fifteen years ago it was his teacher sitting where he was now, watching his teammates enviously with eyes that still matched.

"Hatake doesn't suit you." Sasuke remarked, a sense of irony twisting his lips.

Kakashi looked at Sakura and Naruto, and squinted. In the fading light, when time bled at the edges a little, they could almost pass as two other teenagers...

"Yes." Kakashi agreed. "Uchiha would've been better."


	13. short: SasuSaku: Inexhaustible

Inexhaustible

"Love given away wholeheartedly, inclusively, and unconditionally is inexhaustible."

Sakura can't remember where she read this, or why, but she believes in it.

Believed in it.

She had everything at her fingertips- at least, that's how it felt now. Naruto wouldn't leave her alone, she slept, breathed and ate with her teammates, and the most heartache she suffered was when Sasuke said 'no' to her requests for dates.

If only she had known Naruto would leave her to wander the world with his new sensei. That she would ache for something as tiny as the chance to see her team together again, even if it meant blows would be exchanged. And Sasuke. She wished her biggest fear concerning him was his rejection. Who knew what he faced in his new life- one hand-picked and conspicuously absent of her. Of everyone. She wasn't even sure she'd know who he was anymore.

Once, when Sakura's hair was still past her shoulders (though it wouldn't be for much longer) and her heart still forming callouses against petty hurts, she had given up on Sasuke.

When she had been trying to win Sasuke over, every smile was a victory, every consideration a success. She couldn't help herself- she may not be the best at ninjutsu, or taijutsu, but this was a battle she could win- or so she thought.

Sasuke was not nearly as convinced, it would seem.

But Sakura was a modern woman- there was bound to be a beautiful, talented man that _would_ appreciate her, right?! She absolutely refused to love that stubborn ass of a man any longer.

It was the worst possible choice she could have made. Stripped of romantic intentions, Sasuke Uchiha merely became…her teammate. There was no adrenaline rush and smug satisfaction when he grinned at her, just the quiet thumping of a pulse that recognized the blessing of good genes. When he walked her home, she didn't feel triumphant but...shy. Affected. Without tunnel vision, she was finally seeing Sasuke... all of Sasuke. He caught her crying after a particularly miserable training exercise. She had become accustomed to his criticisms, but instead he held out a hand to her, and told her he thought she was improving. It hit her how much she preferred this Sasuke to the one she had chased- how much more endeared he had become to her.

She felt her heart might overflow. She felt more grateful than if he had said yes to every single one of her date requests. She took his hand, and mentally waved her white flag. By refusing to love him, she had effectively managed only to cement herself to the emotion more firmly. It was with a sense of half-amused fatalism that she mused that Sasuke would forever be wrapped in her affections- that she couldn't help but to adore him.

He was arrogant, and frustrating, and moody, and a _person _finally, and Sakura thought nothing could break her, that love flourished even without encouragement. Even if he didn't reciprocate, she could love him quietly, in her own way, and be content with that, couldn't she?

But time has a way of wearing a heart down. The years stretched, and Sakura grew. She'd never give up on her teammate, never, but her life went on without him. _She_ went on without him. She went out on dates, and kissed other boys. She waited for Naruto, but not idly. They would bring Sasuke back and then...

Then...

That's where she always got stuck now. She had known the answer in the past- they would be together, and life would unfold the way it should've before this, her and Sasuke and Naruto living forever as friends and unrequited crushes, going on and on in a summer of adolescent joy and misery.

But now, Sakura isn't so sure that's what she wants anymore. She's changed- surely they had too. Emotions she swore to never relinquish had tarnished to almost imperceptibility. Where would Sasuke fit into her life now? The space for him was gone- she no longer felt his absence like she had before- then he had been a phantom limb, a presence she constantly compared her reality with- Sasuke would've smirked if he had heard that, Sasuke would love this restaurant, Sasuke would've been so mad if he had seen that.

Now, his interactions were mainly met with question marks and indecision. Would he say that? Did he still like that? Would she recognize his smile? Would he even want to see hers?

She's ashamed to have such an uncertain heart, but she has learned that love is finite... everything has it's breaking points.

Her mind is mired in all this as she tends Konoha's wounded as they trickle in from their most recent battle- one involving the two boys that somehow were her whole world, and yet, not remotely connected to it at all.

She was so busy helping the injured that she doesn't immediately notice. But Naruto's voice is so loud she can't mistake it, and looks up just in time to see them staggering towards her- that moron of a best friend and... Sasuke.

Here.

In Konoha.

His arm is draped around Naruto's shoulder, and there's a vulnerability, a neediness in his expression as his eyes flick back and forth between the two of them that Sakura had never, ever seen- never even imagined she _could_ see. Everything narrows- the pained groans, the strange trio of ninja huddled behind Sasuke, even Sakura's own shaking hands.

And all of sudden, she's excited, and inadequate somehow, and intrigued, and settled. As if it had been the distance of a heartbeat, and not years, all the old feelings flood back as if a dam had broken. It's impossibly painful, yet so excruciatingly sweet. She doesn't know if she wants to laugh or cry.

She thinks she's finally understanding a few things now- She once thought love as fragile as a paper fan. But maybe it was more that love needs hope to survive. And she's learning that hope (love) is almost as tenacious as Uzumaki Naruto.

Maybe it's her, but it kind of looks like Sasuke agrees.

~*~

AN: Originally, I wanted this to be the phases of Sakura's love. But then it mutated. Even when it's about Sasuke and Sakura, it's still about Naruto *sheepish grin* I guess the series isn't named after him for nothing! Oh, won't Kishimoto put my Team 7 back together already? *hopes*


	14. short: Sakura: Brand New Girl

Brand New Girl 

'_Sakura, who did that to you?'_

The first thing Sasuke had noticed when he woke was her face.

He had blamed the ninja from the Sound when he had seen her bloodied and bruised, but Sakura thought that was unfair- really, she had done it to herself.

'_Sakura, what happened to your hair?!'_

Naruto had been the first one to notice that.

Even with all her carefully crafted outfits and painstaking grooming, it was only when she beheld herself peppered with stitches and bandages that she truly felt beautiful. For once, she had stood up and been counted.

The wounds were slow to heal. Her face was swollen for days and the dark circle around her eye lingered even longer. Cuts scabbed over, and deeper ones knitted together to eventually become scars. Three weeks later, and she still looked like she had been through an ordeal. She hadn't seen her team in as long- Sasuke, Kakashi and Naruto had disappeared presumably to train but Sakura had suspicions about that. She had seen Naruto once, a few days since the third round, after the bruises had time to bloom into deep blacks and purples. He hadn't been able to look at her face without cringing. The way her teacher and Sasuke had been pointedly ignoring her black eye even before the exams were over gave her some clue as to what truly kept them away.

She wished she could be training with them- she couldn't help but feel left behind. They raced at breakneck speed to be acknowledged, while she was still waiting and biding her time.

She remembers the feel of kunais- the one that she plunged into Zaku's arm, the one that got her in the leg, and the one Ino used to even out her hack job. The little tufts of pink had itched her shoulders and Sasuke had been watching with an intense expression, half lost and half pensive. She never wants him to look at her like that again.

'_I wanted a change.'_

Sakura thinks she has never told a lie with more truth in it. A part of her feels slightly resentful towards her teammates. Though they had all noticed the difference in her appearance, they had yet to realize the one in her heart.


	15. short:sasusaku:whenIthinkaboutyou

**_...I Touch Myself_**

He woke from the dream so hard it was painful. The sheets were twisted up, the air thick and heavy with his pheromones. The knowledge that she was only two rooms down certainly didn't help his condition.

'_Puberty's a bitch.'_ was all he could think as he reached down to take care of it. He tried to think of someone- anyone- except her. It was no good. 18-year-old Sasuke was attracted to Sakura in a way twelve-year-old Sasuke never could've fathomed. He panted as the dream filtered back- breasts pressed to his back, phantom fingers tracing over his body. Sakura licking the glossy pout of her bottom lip, coyly catching his gaze as she lowered her head to the fly of his shorts.

The ensuing images were so erotic Sasuke's hips bucked into his own hand and he had to bite back his surprised groan. He was so close, and so deep into it that now it was _Sakura_ touching him, _Sakura's_ fingers sliding down his length, two people clenching the sheets in their fists, not just one. He closed his eyes, breathless lips groaning her name, wishing he had more than just fantasies to get off to.

Just once he'd like her to see what she did to him.

"Sasuke-kun! Are you okay?" Sakura burst through the door, huffing and urgent.

The two teammates froze- one with guilt, the other with shock.

It was impossible to deny what he had been doing- his fingers were still wrapped around his erection. Her wide eyes bounced from his flushed and panting face to below his waist. A hand flew to her mouth, jaw working in soundless apology. He had never blushed so hard in his life. Vaguely, he considered dying a welcome option.

"I…I'm sorry. I heard you say my name as I was passing down the hall and I thought…oh…OH." Sakura's quick mind put two and two together and within seconds her face matched his.

"If you're through gawking?" Sasuke was genuinely surprised that he still had an ounce of composure- he certainly didn't feel composed. Aroused, on the brink of an orgasm, and having just been witnessed touching himself to fantasies of his female teammate, _by_ said teammate, Sasuke could honestly admit that the only thing he had a good grip on at that moment was his hard-on.

"Oh…Oh, right, sorry!" Sakura stuttered, turning to leave. "I'll just let you…um...finish up."

Sasuke closed his eyes in embarrassment, waiting for her to exit. When the door finally slammed shut, he opened his eyes not to an empty room, but rather a still-present Sakura. He watched numbly as she pulled her shirt over her head, hair falling back onto her narrow shoulders in a graceful sweep.

"I was thinking, Sasuke-kun." She licked her lips as she approached him, and Sasuke's fingers tightened involuntarily. "Maybe I can help you with that problem."

_AN: An older short of mine that I kept away from FFN b/c of content. I gotta catch up with my Naruto! Has Sasuke stopped being an idiot yet? ;)  
_


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